I know what you’re thinking…
It’s summer–why haven’t I posted my list of my goals for this summer? I mean, I always a list of goals for every season, right? Lent, Advent, summer, new year’s, starting the school year…
But not this time.
This time, and for this summer, I’m taking a different approach.
Because for the last two summers, I’ve been blind-sided by how busy we were and how fast it all went. At the beginning, I had these visions of slow moving days, time to read, time to play, time to get projects done….
And by the end, I’m left wondering what the heck happened. Those summers are past. Summers are now filled with baseball games, driving kids to retreats, and work crew, and VBS, and other volunteer opportunities, and sports camps and then football practice…
And all sorts of odds and ends in between.
I have a schedule for my kids on their days off that include morning prayers, working out, chores and then spiritual reading later in the day, but these past two summers, we have had very, very few days when anyone could possibly do that.
So it was that this year, I just wasn’t inspired to plan any lofty goals. Even vacation plans or family excursions seemed kind of sparse.
And I felt kind of bad about that. What exactly would my kids remember from this summer? What would they say they did over the summer when they went back to school?
So my first trip in the beginning/middle of June to take my son to Indiana for his retreat, I drop him off and stop in the chapel to pray. I expressed my concerns to God about the summer.
And I heard: let it be what it is.
Let it be simple. Let it be boring even. Just let it be.
And so just recently, baseball is winding down. I came back from dropping my daughter off in Cincinnati for her mission trip/retreat. And I find myself at home with a day with nothing to do.
I need to do dishes and laundry and but should we go to the zoo, or the park or….
And then I decided we don’t need to go anywhere.
I decided we would just have a lazy day at home. I decided we didn’t need to fill every spare day with activity. Because we go, and go and go . . .and just maybe for once even the kids would like to not have to do anything or go anywhere. Maybe not. But either way, I decided, they don’t need to be constantly entertained and fulfilled all summer long. And maybe we needed a few more days to just do chores and play in the yard and do our reading and to just let that be enough for a day.
So, yeh, there are a few plans for the summer. We went camping, we’ll be visiting family in New York and taking a weekend trip to Lake Erie. Maybe we’ll go to the zoo. Nothing amazing.
And you know, I’m kind of happy about that.
I think for once I’ll let it be.
